Outside my window… The sun is shining and the leaves on just one of our trees are starting to change.

I am thinking… about Ender’s birthday. We’re having a little party for him on Saturday, but I still need to hunt down one last present! I know what I’d like to find for him, just having a hard time finding it. I’m finishing the border on his requested quilt tonight or tomorrow hopefully, then my mom will take an evening to quilt it, then I just have the hand binding to finish by Saturday . . .

I am thankful for… the unexpected break in my day coming later. It’s just a half hour cancellation, but sometimes a half hour is enough to recharge.

From the learning rooms… Ender told me a few days ago that it was boring with no work time during the day since we hadn’t had work time in about a week at that point. I suppose that means we’re doing something right. For this week we’re getting back to some phonics and I printed 2 pages of grid art to see if he’s able to do that this week- I think it may be something for next year, but we’ll see what he thinks. I’m not quite recovered enough to get back to our letter of the week, but I think we need a few days to just get back into a routine that doesn’t revolve around medication times. I have plans for color mixing too, but that kind of depends on how caught up I am on laundry and all that after spending a week holding sick boys.

Ezra is going to be busy with other color work- color box 2 and some free coloring pages. He’s starting to name objects including the color- “red chair”, etc. – and I think I owe it all to reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear at least 5 times a day in the past week.

From the kitchen… Can I just say I *love* that I can order library books online? I ordered 6 or 7 cookbooks last week when I finally realized we’d be hiding out at home for a few days to recover. Superman went to pick them up for me and so I’ve been looking through those for new-to-us recipes. We’re going to try out homemade chicken nuggets later this week and I next weekend I’m going to make a few recipes designed to be made ahead and frozen for the nights that we’re struggling with getting dinner on the table.

The best find out of that library stack? Nigella Express. The simple fact that she writes that she’s not always in the mood to make dinner at the end of the day even though she’s a professional chef??? I love that. Makes me feel 80 kajillion times better.

I am wearing… an ankle length red linen skirt I made over the summer and a long sleeve black t-shirt. Leggings too, since I get cold even though it’s 75 degrees outside.

I am creating… hats this week. I finished up the green mittens (pictures to come) and I’m on to red hats. I had intended the green to be for matching mittens and a hat for Ezra and the red to be a matching set for Ender, but when Ender saw Ezra’s finished mittens he said he wanted to match Ezra. So we have 4 green mittens and soon we will have 2 red hats.

I am going… to spend a lot more time in meditation and prayer this week. My head is buzzing with everything that HAS to happen in the next few weeks. To make that happen I’m going to be up a little earlier in the mornings. Since the sickies hit us I’ve not been getting up as early (since Ezra has been sleeping later!) and I need to get back into the habit of getting up at 6. That probably means I should go to bed before 1 a.m.

I am reading… The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.

I am hoping… to finish Ender’s birthday quilt in time!!!

I am hearing… K-Love. We’ve been listening to a lot of radio this week.

Around the house… the laundry is getting caught up and so is everything else. Slowly but surely! I’m back in the studio this week though, so it will be a little on the slower side.

One of my favorite things… the evening quiet time. The boys have been so tired when bed time comes around that they have gone to bed easily and quickly lately. It’s been nice to just be in the quiet.

A few plans for the rest of the week . . . getting back into the swing of things, finishing Ender’s quilt, trying to help Superman keep his head above water this week as he writes 3 papers for a total of 35 pages. Oh and takes 2 exams also.

Here is picture thought I am sharing… I know, I know- again with the “no picture” thing, but like I’ve said before- because of all the recent computer issues adding pictures involves shenanigans with the external hard drive that I’m still figuring out. If I were to share a picture today it would be of Ezra’s colorful artwork on my living room wall. Thank goodness it’s only crayon and I practically own stock in Magic Erasers.